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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Life as a Lyrical Gangster

Every once in a while I stop just blindly singing along with catchy songs on the radio and ponder the lyrics. This is one of those times. These four just caught my ear recently.

Lil Wayne "I'm a hip hop socialist" - Last year a group of us had a discussion about a t-shirt that said 'Living the R&B Lifestyle' and what exactly that lifestyle entails. None of us in that group had ever lived anything close to it, whatever it might be. Something else I didn't consider when looking up Lil Wayne lyrics on line is that the words that you hear on the radio edit version are almost 100% different than the original version. An entirely different song. A socialist, according to dictionary.com is a supporter of socialism. Socialism is a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. Using dictionary.com as the definitive answer to all things today, hip hop by definition is the popular subculture of big-city teenagers, which includes rap music, break dancing, and graffiti art. So....a hip hop socialist will use graffiti art to advocate the vesting of ownership? Hmmmm.

Bruno Mars "I'll be lying on the couch just chillin' in my snuggie, flip to MTV so they can teach me how to dougie" -The "Lazy Song" is currently a favorite. Partially because everyone can relate to wanting to spend a day on the couch doing nothing (and not everyone relates to being a hip hop socialist). This line is such a statement of the times. Five years from now I can picture someone asking their friend "What the hell is a snuggie?" And the Dougie hasn't yet become a wedding mainstay like the Electric Slide, so you might actually need someone to teach you how to Dougie.

Fabolous "Her feet are killing her, I call it shoeicide" - I decided quite a long time ago, before Fabolous coined the term, that I would not commit shoeicide. When I used to work in banquets, I was on my feet 10-12 hours a day. Shoes had to be functional and comfortable. I used to think that when I switched to a desk job that all the sudden I'd want to wear a skirt and heels every day. That never happened. I wear skirts to work on a very limited basis, so much so that people comment on it every time.

Pitbull (ft Ne-yo) "Grab somebody sexy, tell 'em hey" - What else is there to say? It's good life advice. If you can't work up the courage to grab them, at least introduce yourself.